For decades coaches spoke about up-skilling players so shirt numbers don’t matter. It’s happening now in the Six Nations
There are plenty of visions of the future around at the moment. One has three initials – CVC – and is entwining itself, triffid-like, around the commercial rights of almost every significant rugby competition worldwide. Another is the standing water on numerous pitches in England and Wales, a portent of what may await lower-lying communities everywhere should global warming intensify.
On Sunday at Twickenham it was more a case of joining the dots. There was George Kruis, a lock, aiming to kick the ball out of hand like a taller, gangly version of Owen Farrell. Charlie Ewels, another lock, could be seen packing down at No 8. Ewels’s Bath teammate, Jonathan Joseph, was on the wing, having played virtually all his previous top-level rugby at centre. Rugby’s much-discussed hybrid era, all of a sudden, was front and centre and hard to miss.
Written by Robert Kitson
This news first appeared on https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2020/feb/25/eddie-jones-england-hybrids-rugby-union-six-nations under the title “
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